BART, unions resume talks as senators add pressure

By MIHIR ZAVERI , Associated Press

Aug. 8, 20136:16 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Bay Area Rapid Transit's management and employee unions resumed contract negotiations Thursday as California's two senators urged the parties resolve the labor dispute and head off a crippling transit strike.

Laura A. Oda

Anthony Meadow prepares to ride BART to the airport where he plans to catch a plane to Washington, D.C., at the Rockridge BART station in Oakland, Calif., after a late-night decision by Gov. Jerry Brown to stop the BART strike with a seven-day injunction on Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Meadow said his wife was up at 4:30 checking the website to see if she was going to have to drive him to the airport if the BART strike went through. (AP Photo/The Contra Costa Times, Laura A. Oda )

Anthony Meadow prepares to ride BART to the airport where he plans to catch a plane to Washington, D.C., at the Rockridge BART station in Oakland, Calif., after a late-night decision by Gov. Jerry Brown to stop the BART strike with a seven-day injunction on Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Meadow said his wife was up at 4:30 checking the website to see if she was going to have to drive him to the airport if the BART strike went through. (AP Photo/The Contra Costa Times, Laura A. Oda )

In this file photo from Tuesday, June 25, 2013, supporters of Bay Area Rapid Transit workers hold up signs at a news conference outside of the BART 24th Street Mission station in San Francisco. San Francisco Bay Area commuters braced for the possibility of another train strike as the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency and its workers approached a deadline to reach a new contract deal. The two sides were set to resume negotiations at noon on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, but did not appear close to an agreement. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

The two sides got back to the bargaining table a day after they made their case to a fact-finding board appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown. The panel has until Sunday night to submit its report to the governor, who can then ask a court to call a 60-day cooling-off period, when BART trains can keep running.

On Thursday, California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer sent a letter to BART managers and the unions asking them to use the time before Sunday night to reach a contract agreement.

"We urge you to resume negotiations in good faith, end the dispute, and work together to avoid any further disruptions to BART service," the senators wrote. "Any BART service disruption has significant impacts on our region's economy and the hundreds of thousands of commuters who use the system.

Brown's decision to empanel the "board of inquiry" late Sunday night prevented BART unions from a strike this past Monday that would have shut down one of the nation's largest transit system and created traffic mayhem in the San Francisco Bay Area.

But BART workers could strike as early as this coming Monday if both sides do not reach a deal by Sunday night and a court does not order the cooling-off period.

The two sides remain tens of millions of dollars apart on their proposals for wages, pension and medical benefits.

On Wednesday, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce asked the parties to continue around-the-clock negotiations and bring an arbitrator if necessary to reach a deal.

The labor dispute resulted in a 4 1/2-day strike in early July that snarled traffic on roadways and left commuters facing long lines for buses and ferries.

The nation's fifth largest rail system, BART carries an estimated 400,000 daily riders from the farthest reaches of San Francisco's densely populated eastern suburbs to San Francisco International Airport across the bay.

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Associated Press writers Terence Chea and Terry Collins in San Francisco contributed to this report.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Bay Area Rapid Transit's management and employee unions resumed contract negotiations Thursday as California's two senators urged the parties resolve the labor dispute and head off a crippling transit strike.